The line looks OK, but the perfectionist in Roy Halladay knows better.

He can be better than that.

He allowed two runs in eight innings in Monday's 5-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park. His effort helped the Phillies win the first game of their longest road trip of the season, a 10-game jaunt through San Francisco, San Diego and Arizona. It also made him 3-0 with a 1.17 ERA this season and gave him his first win against the Giants, the only team other than the Phillies he had never beaten in his career.

Halladay allowed six hits, two runs and three walks and threw 85 pitches through five innings, but allowed just one hit and threw 24 pitches in the final three.

"Really, all three starts of the year I've just felt better later on," he said. "Once I get going, I feel like I get in a rhythm and I'm repeating better. I'm working on trying to do a better job of that early in the game. ... It's not that it's not there. It's just not consistent. It's there, but I feel like at times early on I get caught trying to make something better than it should be and getting away from what I should be doing. Really, I think that's the biggest thing, staying within myself and not trying to make better pitches than I need to. I feel like that's been the biggest reason."